Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

His debut album came out over here last year and he's already talking about this third - and seemingly last - album, so it's incredible that Lupe Fiasco has had much time to focus on this one in the middle. But he certainly has, and so should you. Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was one of the best hip-hop albums of last year and expectations for this were high when it came out in the States a few months ago. The likely success over here of catchy single Superstar certainly indicates that Fiasco could be on the verge of making it big Kanye West style. First things first though, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool shouldn't be taken to mean 'Lupe Fiasco IS The Cool', because it's more like 'The Cool, by Lupe Fiasco', and that's an important point because the first option makes him sound like a typical hip hop oaf, which he certainly isn't. The Cool was a song from Food & Liquor and this album is like a conceptual sequel to that, carrying on the character's story, though whether you'll actually understand or follow that story is debatable, and it doesn't really matter either way because Fiasco says that the story only really goes across five tracks here. There is a general theme though and a definite darkness that comes from the background to the album's recording: "I lost my father, I lost my business partner to prison, and I lost some friends," he said. "It was a very dark period. It still is in some aspects, but you know, I'm kind of coming out of it. But especially during the time that the album was being cooked, in my head it was a very dark kind of period." That darkness certainly comes through opening track Baba Says Cool For Thought, s spoken word intro by Iesha Jaco that pulls no punches on what it means to be 'cool', taking in all kinds of uncomfortable subjects. Even Superstar is quite a dark track, with Fiasco uneasily dealing with his own rise to fame: "A fresh cool young Lu, trying to cash his microphone check, 2 1 2. Wanna believe my own hype but it's too untrue. The world brought me to my knees, what have you brung you?" With Matthew Santos providing excellent vocals for the chorus, it's an excellent track that looks like it will prove the commercial making of him. And it's far from alone on an album that is full of highlights, like the haunting Hip Hop Saved My Life, Intruder Alert and the fiery Dumb It Down, The Cool is full of great tracks, full of great wordplay from the supremely talented Fiasco and great production from Soundtrakk, Unkle and even Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. The first must-have album of 2008.

Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall

It's a sign of how ludicrously talented Rufus Wainwright is that when he announced that he was going to do this revival, no-one really seemed to think it was a bad idea. Sure, Garland is the prototype gay icon, and Wainwright is of course gay but still it can be risky for someone to indulge in this kind of whim. Arguably, Robbie Williams' career has never quite regained the momentum it lost when he decided to stop being the country's biggest pop star and trying to be Frank Sinatra, but of course there is a slight difference in talent between these two starstruck stars, so there was never really any doubt that Rufus would pull it off with style. And he certainly does that. Recreating, almost note-for-note, the legendary Garland show, he is backed by a fine swing orchestra and is in excellent vocal form, camping it up and vamping it up when necessary, but really living the more emotional and reflective moments. The list of great songs performed here is incredible, from the obvious Somewhere Over The Rainbow to classics like That's Entertainment, Get Happy, Stormy Weather, Everytime We Say Goodbye and Stormy Weather, and Wainwright does them all more than justice, helped out by mum Kate McGarrigle and sister Martha at times, only adding to the awesomeness (yes, it's a word) of the whole thing. And while it is certainly unashamedly gay in tone and Wainwright does go OTT at times, it's by no means just for a homosexual audience, because both he and Garland should be enjoyed by everyone and it goes without saying that this is an essential purchase for his fans, not least because it's such a unique show by him, without any of his own material whatsoever. However, when you're listening to it, that's sometimes hard to notice, because he is so obviously influenced by this kind of music and while he uses more traditional rock musicians rather than a big band, this is all hardly a quantum leap from what you'd expect from a Rufus Wainwright gig, apart from the fact that it's obviously a very, very special one...